Rate My Professor Taylor Perron

Taylor Perron is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and professor of geology in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, where he joined the faculty in 2009. He earned an AB in Earth and Planetary Sciences and Archaeology from Harvard University in 1999 and a PhD in Earth and Planetary Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. Following his PhD, Perron conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard University, publishing evidence for ancient oceans on Mars based on warped shorelines. At MIT, he has held leadership positions including chair of the Program in Geology, Geochemistry, and Geobiology and Associate Department Head for Education. He currently serves on the MIT-WHOI Joint Program Committee on Geology and Geophysics and has been a member of the Editorial Committee of the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences since 2017.

A geomorphologist in Geoscience, Perron investigates how geology, climate, and life intertwine to shape landscapes on Earth and other planets and moons. His research integrates fieldwork in regions such as the Appalachian Mountains, Hawaii, and the Amazon; mathematical and computational modeling of landscape evolution; analysis of remote-sensing and spacecraft data; and laboratory experiments. Key areas include dynamic river networks and their branching patterns from competing erosional processes, climate influences on erosion across continents, islands, reefs, and coasts, landscape evolution's co-evolution with biological diversification as in Appalachian fishes and Amazon freshwater systems, planetary surfaces like Mars' past oceans and Titan's methane rivers and lakes carved by liquid rainfall, and landscapes' influence on human prehistory and migration. Perron's contributions appear in leading journals, such as Stokes et al., 'Erosion of heterogeneous rock drives diversification of Appalachian fishes' (Science, 2023); Deal et al., 'Grain shape effects in bed load sediment transport' (Nature, 2023); and Birch et al., 'Reconstructing river flows remotely on Earth, Titan, and Mars' (PNAS, 2023). His honors include the 2021 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2014 James B. Macelwane Medal, 2014 Fellowship, and Luna B. Leopold Award from the American Geophysical Union.